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Banned Books Week

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Banned Books Week 2021

 

Banned Books Week 

September 26- October 2, 2021

Banned Books Week is an annual weeklong campaign encouraging intellectual freedom and the right to read.  There are many books that have been challenged or banned in public and school libraries, academic libraries, bookstores, and elsewhere for a variety of reasons.  Banned Books Week brings people together to celebrate the right to read and express ideas, even ones that are considered controversial or unorthodox by some.

Top 25 Challenged Books: 2010-2019

 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

 

Budding cartoonist Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Macon Campus Library   Children's Collection - Macon - (2nd floor)   PZ7.A382 Ab 2007  

The Adventures of Captain Underpants

 

When George and Harold hypnotize their principal into thinking that he is the superhero Captain Underpants, he leads them to the lair of the nefarious Dr. Diaper, where they must defeat his evil robot henchmen.

Macon Campus Library   Children's Collection - Macon - (2nd floor)   PZ7.P63123 Ad 1997  

13 Reasons Why

 

When high school student Clay Jenkins receives a box in the mail containing thirteen cassette tapes recorded by his classmate Hannah, who committed suicide, he spends a bewildering and heartbreaking night crisscrossing their town, listening to Hannah's voice recounting the events leading up to her death.

GIL Express

Looking for Alaska

 

Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.           

GIL Express

George

 

BE WHO YOU ARE. When people look at Melissa, they think they see a boy named George. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl. Melissa thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. Melissa really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part... because she's a boy. With the help of her best friend, Kelly, Melissa comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte -- but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all.

GIL Express

And Tango Makes Three

 

At New York City's Central Park Zoo, two male penguins fall in love and start a family by taking turns sitting on an abandoned egg until it hatches. ASPCA Henry Bergh Children's Book Award, 2005; American Library Association Notable Children's Book, 2006; Gustavus Myer Outstanding Book Award, 2006 ; Nick Jr. Family Magazine Best Book of the Year, 2006; Bank Street Best Book of the Year, 2006.

Macon Campus Library   Children's Collection - Macon - (2nd floor)   PZ10.3.R414 Tan 2005  

Drama

 

Callie loves theater. And while she would totally try out for her middle school's production of Moon Over Mississippi, she's a terrible singer. Instead she's the set designer for the stage crew, and this year she's determined to create a set worthy of Broadway on a middle-school budget. But how can she, when she doesn't know much about carpentry, ticket sales are down, and the crew members are having trouble working together? Not to mention the onstage AND offstage drama that occurs once the actors are chosen, and when two cute brothers enter the picture, things get even crazier!

GIL Express

Fifty Shades of Grey


When literature student Anastasia Steele goes to interview young entrepreneur Christian Grey, she encounters a man who is beautiful, brilliant, and intimidating. The unworldly, innocent Ana is startled to realize she wants this man and, despite his enigmatic reserve, finds she is desperate to get close to him. Unable to resist Ana's quiet beauty, wit, and independent spirit, Grey admits he wants her, too--but on his own terms.   Shocked yet thrilled by Grey's singular erotic tastes, Ana hesitates. For all the trappings of success--his multinational businesses, his vast wealth, his loving family--Grey is a man tormented by demons and consumed by the need to control. When the couple embarks on a daring, passionately physical affair, Ana discovers Christian Grey's secrets and explores her own dark desires.

Dublin Campus Library   BestSellers - Dublin   PR6110.A4555 F56 2012  

Internet Girls Series

 

It's time for a new generation of readers to discover the phenomenally bestselling and beloved series, told entirely in messages and texts. With a fresh look and updated cultural references, the notorious list-topping series is ready for the iPhone generation.
First published in 2004 (holy moly!), ttyl and its sequels follow the ups and downs of high school for the winsome threesome, three very different but very close friends: wild Maddie (mad maddie), bubbly Angela (SnowAngel), and reserved Zoe (zoegirl). Through teacher crushes, cross-country moves, bossy Queen Bees, incriminating party pics, and other bumps along the way, author Lauren Myracle explores the many potholes of teenagedom with the unflinching honesty and pitch-perfect humor that made this series a staple of young adult literature.

E-Book Access

The Bluest Eye

 

Pecola Breedlove, a young eleven-year-old black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in. Yet as her dreams grow more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity.--from publisher's description.

Cochran Campus Library   Display - Cochran (Ask at the Service Desk)   PS3563 .O8749 B55 1994   (You can still borrow)

Dublin Campus Library   Circulating Collection - Dublin   PS3563 .O8749 B55 1998  

The Kite Runner

 

Traces the unlikely friendship of a wealthy Afghan youth and a servant's son in a tale that spans the final days of Afghanistan's monarchy through the atrocities of the present day.

Cochran Campus Library   Display - Cochran (Ask at the Service Desk)   PS3608 .O525 K58 2003  (You can still check it out.)

  

The Hunger Games

 

"In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen regards it as a death sentence when she steps forward to take her sister's place in the Games. But Katniss has been close to dead before - and survival, for her, is second nature. Without really meaning to, she becomes a contender. But if she is to win, she will have to start making choices that weigh survival against humanity and life against love"--Cover.

Cochran Campus Library   Circulating Collection - Cochran (Roberts- 3rd floor)   PZ7.C6837 Hun 2008  

Also on main floor display

I am Jazz

 

From the time she was two years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl's brain in a boy's body. She loved pink and dressing up as a mermaid and didn't feel like herself in boys' clothing. This confused her family, until they took her to a doctor who said that Jazz was transgender and that she was born that way.

GIL Express

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

 

A haunting coming of age novel told in a series of letters to an unknown correspondent reveals the life of Charlie, a freshman in high school who is a wallflower, shy and introspective, and very intelligent. It's a story of what it's like to grow up in high school, tracing a course through uncharted territory in the world of first dates, family dramas and new friends.

Cochran Library - Temporary Display  PS3553.H3469 P47 2012   (You can still check it out.)

To Kill a Mockingbird

 

The explosion of racial hate in an Alabama town is viewed by a little girl whose father defends a black man accused of rape.

 

Cochran Campus Library   Circulating Collection - Cochran (Roberts- 3rd floor) PS3562 .E353 T6 1982  

Bone (series)

 

Lucius, Smiley and Phoney are attacked by rat creatures in the forest, barely making it to Lucius' tavern. At the farm, Fone Bone and Thorn are having strange dreams and Gran'ma Ben suddenly begins revealing long-kept secrets and new dangers.

GIL Express

The Glass Castle

 

In the tradition of Mary Karr's "The Liars' Club" and Rick Bragg's "All Over But the Shouting," Jeannette Walls has written a stunning and life-affirming memoir about surviving a willfully impoverished, eccentric and severely misguided family. The child of an alcoholic father and an eccentric artist mother discusses her family's nomadic upbringing, during which she and her siblings fended for themselves while their parents outmaneuvered bill collectors and the authorities.

Cochran Campus Library   Circulating Collection - Cochran (Roberts- 3rd floor)   HV5132 .W35 2006  

Two Boys Kissing

 

A chorus of men who died of AIDS observes and yearns to help a cross-section of today's gay teens who navigate new love, long-term relationships, coming out, self-acceptance, and more in a society that has changed in many ways.

GIL Express

A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo

 

"Meet Marlon Bundo,  a lonely bunny who lives with his Grampa, Mike Pence - the Vice President of the United States. But on this Very Special Day, Marlon's life is about to change forever... With its message of tolerance and advocacy, this charming children's book explores issues of same-sex marriage and democracy. Sweet, funny, and beautifully illustrated, this book is dedicated to every bunny who has ever felt different."

GIL Express

Sex is a Funny Word: A Book About Bodies, Feelings, and You

 

"A comic book for kids that includes children and families of all makeups, orientations, and gender identities, Sex is a Funny Word is an essential resource about bodies, gender, and sexuality for children ages 8 to 10 as well as their parents and caregivers. Much more than the "facts of life" or "the birds and the bees," Sex is a Funny Word opens up conversations between young people and their caregivers in a way that allows adults to convey their values and beliefs while providing information about boundaries, safety, and joy. The eagerly anticipated follow up to Lambda-nominated What Makes a Baby, from sex educator Cory Silverberg and artist Fiona Smyth, Sex is a Funny Word reimagines "sex talk" for the twenty-first century."

GIL Express

Alice (series)

 

The summer before she enters the seventh grade becomes the summer of Alice's first boyfriend, and she discovers that love is about the most mixed-up thing that can possibly happen to you, especially since she has no mother to go to for advice.

GIL Express

It's Perfectly Normal

 

Provides accurate, lucid, and unbiased answers to almost every conceivable question on sex, including birth control and AIDS, that children may ask. Two cartoon characters, a bird and a bee have, often humorous, questions of their own.

GIL Express

Nineteen Minutes

 

"In Sterling, New Hampshire, 17-year-old high school student Peter Houghton has endured years of verbal and physical abuse at the hands of classmates. His best friend, Josie Cormier, succumbed to peer pressure and now hangs out with the popular crowd that often instigates the harassment. One final incident of bullying sends Peter over the edge and leads him to commit an act of violence that forever changes the lives of Sterling's residents. Even those who were not inside the school that morning find their lives in an upheaval, including Alex Cormier. The superior court judge assigned to the Houghton case, Alex - whose daughter, Josie, witnessed the events that unfolded - must decide whether or not to step down. She's torn between presiding over the biggest case of her career and knowing that doing so will cause an even wider chasm in her relationship with her emotionally fragile daughter. Josie, meanwhile, claims she can't remember what happened in the last fatal minutes of Peter's rampage. Or can she? And Peter's parents, Lacy and Lewis Houghton, ceaselessly examine the past to see what they might have said or done to compel their son to such extremes. Rich with psychological and social insight, Nineteen Minutes is a riveting, poignant, and thought-provoking novel that has at its center a haunting question. Do we ever really know someone?"--From source other than the Library of Congress

Cochran Campus Library   Circulating Collection - Cochran (Roberts- 3rd floor)   PS3566 .I372 N56 2007  

Scary Stories (series)

 

Stories of ghosts and witches, "jump" Stories , scary songs, and modern-day scary stories. 

GIL Express

Speak

The first ten lies they tell you in high school. "Speak up for yourself--we want to know what you have to say." From the first moment of her freshman year at Merryweather High, Melinda knows this is a big fat lie, part of the nonsense of high school. She is friendless, outcast, because she busted an end-of-summer party by calling the cops, so now nobody will talk to her, let alone listen to her. As time passes, she becomes increasingly isolated and practically stops talking altogether. Only her art class offers any solace, and it is through her work on an art project that she is finally able to face what really happened at that terrible party: she was raped by an upperclassman, a guy who still attends Merryweather and is still a threat to her. Her healing process has just begun when she has another violent encounter with him. But this time Melinda fights back, refuses to be silent, and thereby achieves a measure of vindication. In Laurie Halse Anderson's powerful novel, an utterly believable heroine with a bitterly ironic voice delivers a blow to the hypocritical world of high school. She speaks for many a disenfranchised teenager while demonstrating the importance of speaking up for oneself.

GIL Express

Contact a Campus:

478-471-2709 for the Macon campus library | 478-934-3179 for the Roberts Memorial Library at the Cochran campus | 478-275-6772 for the Dublin campus library

478-374-6833 for the Eastman campus library | 478-929-6804 for the Warner Robins campus library | On the Go? Text-A-Librarian: 478-285-4898

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